


somebody to love

by Vasilisian



Series: Daily Drabbles [13]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Jennie has a Walkman, Queen is one of her favorite bands, also, and cassette tapes, i realized what it meant that this is set in the eighties, lots of them - Freeform, plus set-up for future one-shots, this is more of an interlude
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-24
Updated: 2019-05-24
Packaged: 2020-03-14 15:01:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18950485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vasilisian/pseuds/Vasilisian
Summary: Bill and Jennie have a weird conversation, and then we skip over to Halloween, which is not a fun holiday for a muggle-born in a house full of people whose parents got arrested because Voldemort kicked the bucket thanks to a toddler.





	somebody to love

“What did you do to Charlie?” Ominous words to hear under any circumstances, but Jennie's nerves were still shot after being hunted by her own house for more than a week, which she blamed for her extreme reaction. Bill ducked, a right light zooming over his head and hitting the wall with a bang. Several of the closest paintings startled as well, waving their hands at her angrily.

“Um, sorry. I'm- sorry. Still a little jumpy.” The older boy looked between her and the scorch-mark on the wall, Jennie clearing her throat awkwardly and tucking her wand back into the forearm bracer she'd bought last summer.

“Anyway, what were you asking about again?”

“I probably shouldn't have snuck up on you. But I was asking what you said to Charlie, because he's thrown himself into Quidditch training over the past few days, and it's starting to get a little weird.” Jennie blinked rapidly, tucking a strand of hair being her ear and pulling her bag further up her shoulder.

“Um, I haven't talked-” Oh, wait, hadn't he been starting at her in the library? “Wait no, I did talk to him. He was staring at me in the library, so I asked him what he wanted. It wasn't a long conversation, he was confused as to why I bought him a broom. But I did mention that I was planning on joining the Slytherin team next year, maybe that has something to do with it? He left awfully quick after that.” Bill's face started doing a weird thing as she spoke, and Jennie took a small step back.

“You know, that explains a lot actually. Wow, I didn't know he had it in him.” What? She frowned at him, and her confusion only got worse when he smiled brightly at her.

“It's nothing to worry about, just forget I said anything. Go do what you were doing, were you headed for the library.” Jennie opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again.

“I'm heading to Transfiguration, classed aren't over yet. Are you okay?” Cocking her head, Jennie tried to look for signs of a hex, or maybe even a curse. He was supposed to be good with those, if the upper years were to be believed, but who knows, maybe he was having a bad day. He waved off her concern, patting her on the head and jogging down the hallway, calling a goodbye over his shoulder.

Shaking her head, Jennie continued on her way to class, putting his strange behaviour out of her mind. She'd failed miserably on her last essay, and McGonagall wouldn't take kindly to her showing up late.

–

Jennie forgot all about Bill and his weirdness as she focused on dragging her studies out of the mud, spending long days in the library under Madam Pince's increasingly stern gaze. For some reason the woman had taken a dislike to her, as if by spending this much time in the library was an offence, and on her more hectic days Jennie wondered meanly if she could get the woman fired.

The weather worsened as the weeks passed, September passing over into October, and then it was Halloween. On the morning of the holiday, Jennie snuck out of the common-room early, ducking only briefly in the Great Hall to grab some toast with honey. Then she spent most of the day ducking into alcoves and abandoned classrooms whenever she spotted a green with silver tie.

October 31st was the day You-Know-Who was defeated. But unlike most of the school, the majority of Slytherin house didn't consider that something to celebrate. In the months following Halloween, their parents were hunted down, killed or put on trial. Some got out by claiming to be under the Imperius Curse, others bribed their way out of a prison sentence, but overall they all lost something when Harry Potter defeated You-Know-Who by some miracle.

And as a muggle-born, Slytherin house was the worst place to be. She was everything they hated, one of the major reasons they started the war in the first place, and she knew from personal experience that some of the older students wouldn't hesitate to curse her if she drew too much attention to herself while they were mourning.

Subconsciously, her hand drifted to her back, hovering over the scar hidden under the fabric. She didn't know who had been the one to cast the curse as her back, just that she'd woken up two weeks later in the hospital wing with a bumpy scar on her back. Madam Pomfrey had wanted to send a letter to her mum about the attack, but Jennie had known she'd be pulled from school. And even after only attending for two months, she hadn't wanted her time at Hogwarts to come to an end just yet.

Sighing, she sank further into the pillows of the hidden window alcove she'd found during Christmas last year, wishing her Walkman worked at Hogwarts. Her mum had pasted together a bunch of her favourite Queen songs just after their new album released over the summer, and having to leave the cassette behind had been horrible.

Humming the tune of Somebody to Love under her breath, Jennie flipped the page of It, Stephen King's new book that her mum had sent her as an early Christmas present. Maybe reading a horror book while hiding from fellow students that would curse her in a moment given the chance wasn't the best idea, but Jennie had never been able to resist reading the kind of books that gave her nightmares.


End file.
